Tag Archives: good government bad government

Building Consensus

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 10 February 2010

How editing Wikipedia & a fictional Martian constitutional convention influenced the Consensus government in my novel(s)-to-be. Yep, & consensus would be a better way to run our own world too, yep.

Posted in About writing, Cold, No Way Way | Also tagged Battle of Washita River, civility, Cold notes, collaborative decisionmaking, collective intelligence, consensus, Consensus (Cold), Dena'ina, Harming none do as you will, integrity, Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Turnbull, Mars, Mars Trilogy, NaNoWriMo 2007, Pavonis Mons, Peter Kalifornsky, science fiction, selfhood, sociocracy, storymind, terraforming, Turnbull (Cold), Ursula K. Leguin, Wikipedia, worldbuilding, writing | 3 Comments

Good for my worldbuilding, bad for my world

By Mel | Published: Saturday, 6 February 2010

One tool for inventing an imaginary story universe in science fiction is extrapolating from the present into the future. Granting corporations lots of extra power as the Supreme Court did recently is very good for my worldbuilding. But is very bad for the world I actually live in.

Posted in Cold, Long Dark, Polis | Also tagged Anchorage Baptist Temple, Anchorage Daily News, C.J. Cherryh, Chris, Citizens United v. FEC, Cold notes, collective intelligence, consensus, Consensus (Cold), corporations, corporations as persons, Cyteen, Dave, democracy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Juneau Empire, Kim Stanley Robinson, Long Dark notes, Lord of the Rings, Mars, Middle Earth, political corruption, science fiction, sociocracy, terraforming, Tom Anderson, VECO, worldbuilding, writing | 2 Comments

Money as “free speech”: Colbert, Maddow, & me

By Mel | Published: Saturday, 23 January 2010

Commentary from Stephen Colbert & Rachel Maddow on the disastrous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FED -- & my own observations on how the Republican Party has become just as psychopathic as corporations.

Posted in Polis | Also tagged Citizens United v. FEC, corporations, Daughter Number Three (blog), democracy, Democratic Party, free speech, health care reform, political parties, psychopathy, Rachel Maddow, Republican Party, The Colbert Report (TV), U.S. Supreme Court | 2 Comments

Toward a 28th Amendment: Corporations are not human persons

By Mel | Published: Friday, 22 January 2010

Sign the Motion to Amend: part of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy's campaign to amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood. It's time to take democracy back.

Posted in Polis | Also tagged abolish corporate personhood, Campaign to Legalize Democracy, Citizens United v. FEC, corporations, Exxon Valdez, Progressive Alaska (blog), Rikki Ott, U.S. Consitution, U.S. Supreme Court, Ultimate Civics | 2 Comments

Government by psychopathy

By Mel | Published: Friday, 22 January 2010

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission had granted the fake-persons known as corporations vast new powers of "free speech" by which to further corrupt American democracy.

Posted in Polis | Also tagged Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), Citizens United v. FEC, corporations, diabetes, Eli Lilly, Exxon, Exxon Valdez, free speech, GMO (genetically modified organisms & foods), Haiti, Jim Gottstein, Joel Bakan, Monsanto, natural disasters, psychiatric drugs, psychiatry, psychopathy, Shaun of the Dead (movie), The Corporation (book and film), U.S. Supreme Court, zombies, Zyprexa | 5 Comments

The Daily Tweets, 2010-01-22: U.S. Supreme Court sells out democracy to highest corporate bidders

By Mel | Published: Thursday, 21 January 2010

The news that greeted me this morning: the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 activist decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which further extended the legal fiction that corporations are “persons” by granting their extremely deep special interest pockets pretty much unlimited “free speech” in campaign advertising. This is one I’ve been watching. Democracy in [...]

Posted in The Daily Tweets | Also tagged Andrew Sullivan, Christianism, Citizens United v. FEC, corporations, earthquake, HAARP, Haiti, Mormon Church (LDS), Prop 8, same-sex marriage, Sarah Palin, Shannyn Moore, U.S. Supreme Court | 2 Comments

Helping Haiti (& telling Pat Robertson to STFU)

By Mel | Published: Wednesday, 13 January 2010

How can we help the people of Haiti in the aftermath of yesterday's devastating earthquake? By sending them assistance -- not by blaming them, as Christianist lackwit Pat Robertson so predictably does.